TLS THE ONE Server

[Ricones]

I have paid for the TLS One Server in October of 2018. I am still waiting for either the delivery of the item or my money back. Time and time again Adrian demonstrated his art in delaying and finding excuses. The latest excuse is that the shipper (not clear which one) did not come for several days now to pick up the package. 

Before I take any legal action against the companyI would like to know if anyone else have had a similar experience.  Thanks.

[Ricones]

@marce  Actually I have that switch and LPS in my system. It did improve the sound of Roon streamed to Trinnov Altitude32; BluRay mkv rips streamed to Oppo 205 showed a better picture while the soundtrack was more coherent. AppleTV also displayed a better picture and sound. On the other hand, I had in my system for about one week their DS-1 streamer. SQ was very disappointing. I hope TOS sounds better.

 

@hieukm Yours must be the second server Adrian mentioned.

 

@rickca @hieukm I have got an USPS tracking number for an item that was shipped from Vancouver, Canada.  It should be here Friday by 8PM.  

[Ricones]

@Superdad Will post pictures once the unit gets here. I am afraid I don't know who Mike Davis is.

[Ricones]

I have received the server midday today. As promised here are the first impressions.

Heavy box with repurposed packaging. No power cord. The server is put together in a rush. Screws not properly fastened; one screw found loose in the packing box. Something is dangling inside the server -- sound like another loose screw.  Sent Adrain email asking for advice on whether I should power the server.  

 

[Ricones]

@nenon Unit won't start.  All I get is this (orange) light. No link between switch and server.

[Ricones]

@hieukm let me know if you have a better experience.

[Ricones]

@rickca At least dont have to press the power button, all you have to do is pug in the power cord.

[Ricones]

@Nenon I strongly disagree with your statement. In my case I have paid in October of 2018 for a server with a given configuration to be delivered by the end of that year. Don't know the terms of the agreement between Adrian and @hieukm However, according to US law, upon purchasing an item one has a grace period to decide whether one keeps or returns that purchase.

 

@flkin I suspect the screw was holding the motherboard. Found two more loose screws inside when I opened the server. I also have a picture of the inside but will have to ask Adrian before publishing it.

 

Upon opening the server I have founds that the mobo power connector was hanging in the air.    The server is now up and running although the front light is very confusing: it is always on. How can one tell if the server is on?

 

 

 

 

 

[Ricones]

@Superdad According to the shipping manifest, the unit was shipped from a TLS branch in BC.  I find it hilarious because the sound of the server is very unlike the Canadians: its is very forward, in your face.

 

@flkin As far as I know the English language has a saying that goes something like this: don't judge a book by its covers.

[Ricones]

@Nenon Sorry I missed it. I am quite upset about the whole situation. While the TLS shows promise there is a long way to go and I am not willing to wait anymore.

[Ricones]

16 hours ago, Superdad said:

Looking closer at your photos, it looks like the center of the bottom panel is bowed outward. Is it? I can’t imagine what sort of force or weight would cause that.

 

And this is a box you paid $8K for and waited 7 months to receive?  Yikes...

 

I suspect there was an over enthusiastic chap with a screwdriver.  There is no weight in the middle of the box, just the three OCXO modules very well screwed in. The fact that the top cover kept its shape further adds weight this hypothesis.

 

@Superdad You are also right on all other counts. 
 

[Ricones]

@hieukm It is not my place to comment/speculate on Adrian/TLS internal business operation. I am sure he is a law abiding person that wants to do and does the right thing. My concern is with the terms of the commercial contract and how they were (not) met. 

 

I have paid for a self-contained audio appliance with 3 OCXO clocks and 2TB low noise SSD. What I have got is a (promising) prototype that requires significant configuration. Of the 3 crystals, 2 are connected while the third has the a wire going nowhere. There is a 1TB WD blue SSD. The USB stick  appears to be configured with audiolinux ram2 (according to Piero of AudioLinux) that requires a two 2 PCs set-up, thus not self-contained. Besides branding, it is not clear to me if the boot image is customized for TLS. I suspect it s not. 

 

On the upside, Adrian has used good components inside (Mundorf capacitors all over, Connor-Winfield OH4610LF crystals). Although not burned in, and not optimized (using default configuration) the sound is good! 

[Ricones]

This is a larger post. If interested in what TOS sounds like feel free to jump to the last section.

 

About me

Been an audiophile since early teens. Many moons ago I have built for personal use audio phono adapters, preamps and power amplifiers, using both tubes and solid state. My first degree is in CS thus I have an idea about digital filters and know my way around a command line.  

 

Interests 

I don’t have any affiliation with anyone or any products I mention in this post. For full disclosure, a few years ago I have bought from @Superdad the awesome JP-1 power supply and USB Regen.

 

The gory details

I have also successfully built several CAT systems. Based on this experience I have concluded that to get a good sound one needs (i) low ripple, low impedance power supplys, (ii) low current, underclocked mobo/cpu, (iii) OCXC clocks for USB, network & bus, and (iv) low latency, real-time, stripped down OS. Adrian’s TOS seemed to address all those points.

 

The unit I have received may have HW issues. When powering up one normally hears the POST beep/s. I don’t think I have heard twice the same beep sequence. I have had several instances when pressing the power button did nothing, both on power up as well as power down. It may very well be that the system OS stick is misconfigured. This is TBD.

 

The machine is powered by a Celeron J1900 running at 1366 MHz. While up sampling PCM to 192 KHz works fine I am not so sure how it will cope with DSD. Given the small amount of RAM  (8MB, 1333MHz, unbuffered, non-ECC) you can only run safely audiolinux in headless mode.

 

Roon with a large database, 2TB in my case, is slow to initialize. I think it may take several days to complete.
Copying files over the network to the internal SSD is slow, with speeds ranging between 0KB/s and 9MB/s at peak (average 2-3MB/s). I am dead sure it is not the network fault nor the fault of the source HTPC. 

I have found out that the machine can not update the Roon database and copy files on the SSD at the same time.

 

As of now I am not able to set the machine in RAM mode nor am I able to upgrade HQPlayer, or anything else for that matter. The current USB stick used for booting needs further configuration. System optimization (RAM boot, extending stick partition, etc.) is not that easy a process and could be catastrophic if you don’t know what you do. I would have expected to be already configured. A back-up stick would be a good idea.

On Monday I will be speaking with Piero of AudioLinux to help me with configuration and optimization issues. 

 

The Test System
My current system is a very revealing one but is a mixed bag. Properly tuned puts out an incredible sound field (at the cost of a hefty electricity bill ).

Speakers: In-wall Wisdom Audio LS75i with LS90i, in-wall subwoofers. Mid base and high frequencies (275Hz onwards) sections of the LS7i are powered by Krell Solo 575; ATI AT542NC for subwoofers. In-wall speaker cables from Analysis Audio; Big Silver Oval XLR interconnects from same Analysis Plus. 

Everything but the amplifiers is powered from a modified Furman Elite 20i with TimePortal cables from the Upgrade Company. 

Network: Audiophile switch with LPS from TLS; SotM ISO CAT6, AudioQuest Vodka and Diamond Ethernet cables.

Processor: Trinnov Altitude32. Arguably, one of the best HT processor on the planet. It is an excellent Roon endpoint but does not have an USB input. To connect CAT to the processor via USB I am using Berkeley USB Digital Interface with cables from Synergistic Research: Galileo SX AES-EBU and Galileo SX USB. All this just to be able to listen to @Miska 's HQPlayer through my system. Why? Because it is the best up-sampler I have heard so far. Although limited on library features when it comes to SQ is several orders of magnitude above Roon, which I also like.

 

The Sound

John Heron helped me set-up the Trinnov processor. At that time he said that I will listen to this system without any up-sampling whatsoever. Given John’s vast experience in the audio field I did not argue with that statement but I was highly skeptical. That started to change when I plugged TOS in my system. Despite the fact that Roon was thrashing the disk updating its database and that the system is not optimized, I was totally impressed with the sound:  very fast, detailed, great instrument separation, tight base, incredible slam. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Jim Glennie of James playing base on tracks “Sound” and “Seven” from “The Best Of (James Album)”.

 

 

@hieukm I shan't offer an opinion on what you should do next. However, I trust you have the record of your financial transaction with TLS and that you also kept all written correspondence. If you had any phone conversations with TLS I hope you wrote down, immediately after the completion of the call, everything that was discussed and that you have those records as well. 

 

[Ricones]

@davide256 Thank for pointing out the font issue. How would I change that after posting the message?

[Ricones]

The font size was accidental. I apologize to anyone who feels I am shouting at them. @davide256 Once again thanks for pointing out the issue.

[Ricones]

@FredM.      I was one of those who red your post. Your reasoning in selecting this server there was correct though.

 

I have spoken several times with Adrian last week. We came to the conclusion that the server he sent is promising but underpowered and requires some more work. He described the next version of the product that if he is able to pull it off it will be something very appealing.

Regarding Adrian, he seems to be the guy who wants to do the right thing for his customers despite the challenges.

 

Sent the unit back and hopefully I will get the new version back by the end of July. Before sending the unit back I run the latest version of AudioLinux, v140. AudioLinux is the Linux variant Adrian modified for his server. It was a good sound but very different: it was smoother, laid back, lacking the slam and the aggressiveness of the sound produced by the software the server had originally.   

 

 

 

[Ricones]

I had the DS-1 streamer in my system for about a week.   Adrian said it was their entry configuration. Maybe that is why it sounded really bad: flat sound full of digital haze, very difficult to listen to more than several seconds.  

The server unit had a totally different sound though, absolutely no comparison.

[Ricones]

@hieukm @FredM Sorry guys.  Any pictures that we can see?   

 

[Ricones]

@hieukmWhen was the server delivered?  If it was delivered recently it means the quality of work has gone from bad to worse.   

 

[Ricones]

@hieukm I think I sent him the link immediately after I posted the pictures of the unit he sent me.  

 

@austinpop I have purchased the router and I second your findings. Regarding the streamer, at least the one he sent me earlier in the year, it had a really bad SQ. 

[Ricones]

@k27R The unit I have received and returned had Mundorf caps.

[Ricones]

@RickyV Mystery solved:  it is the oak that gives the Lampizator sound!!!

[Ricones]

@FredM   After I got it running, TLS sounded quite good.  Booting TLS from a stick with the latest version of AudioLinux (not Adrian's) produce a different SQ: mellow sound and bloomy low frequencies. 

Need to make clear that when it comes to SQ there is no comparison between the DS-1 unit I had and TLS.

[Ricones]

@FredM  Adrian was supposed to deliver by mid July the new version of the server. The TLS sound was so good that I agreed suggesting end of July as a delivery date. He is asking for more time now on account of being new product that requires custom parts. Given past experiences and the fact that he knew all that when he committed to the deadline I am not inclined to accept.   I am simply tired of all this and have no more time for it. 

 

One more thing: workmanship and the quality of the components in my unit was better than what @hieukm posted.